The Glacier's Gift

Last night I had my first experience of The Nature Process (a major perk of hosting courses is being able to participate in them!) and it was an eye opener to say the least. In the session, Tabitha ~ our guide on this course ~ offered a complete experience of a process that she is now about to break down into its component parts over the next 6 weeks – and I had my first taste of a way of being that she now lives as the norm. We were asked to bring something that we’re struggling with to mind. That was easy. I brought a particular relationship that is complex and painful into my awareness and felt the familiar sinking and tightening that accompanies it. Then she asked us (if we were inside) to let our minds take us to an amazing place in nature, and if we were outside, we were to just become more present to the nature around us. I found myself up in the Swiss Alps, kneeling underneath a melting glacier in 34 degree heat, marvelling at the intense blue green of the ice and the myriad multi coloured and textured rocks that were appearing from beneath it for the first time in what – millions of years? We were guided to use various senses to become more tuned in and connected, which I did, and then to bring the struggle back to mind. Unhappily, it felt even worse and I immediately thought I must be doing something wrong. But then heard Tabitha say that ‘the more you can sense disconnect, the deeper you can go’. This made no logical sense to me whatsoever in that moment. But I did understand that the feeling in my body was of the opposite of easy connection and so probably a state of disconnection being served increasingly into my awareness by the natural state of natures energies. We then brought our attention and senses even more closely into awareness of the natural place – and were guided this time to really notice what was calling us. I was surprised to find that it wasn’t the colour of the ice - it was the sound of the melt water - and I could so clearly hear it even though the memory was from three years ago. Then back to the struggley thing and this time I could clearly feel that the tension had changed and moved up to my throat – ‘ah, ok’ I thought, ‘there is a process going on between me and the ice – this communion is lifting out the stuckness and bringing me back into connection......so THIS is The Nature Process...’ Then back to the sound of the melt water, this time guided to ask for its support or gift regarding the struggle or issue. Into my mind gently dropped the words‘just let it go...’ and I had a full body feeling of ice or stuckness, simply surrendering to the melt. I found myself immediately starting to cry without any thoughts about what or why – it was simply happening. I thought about how many times I’ve heard Tabitha say that emotion can just be lifted out effortlessly, and now I was directly experiencing it – care of connection to a glacier in my mind. Wow. If that was possible with virtual or memory nature, what could happen when ensconced and communing with the real thing – including the nature of my own body? More amazing still for me - three years ago, when I actually sat and I wept with that glacier, I felt the reality of climate change and the rate of its melt felt impossibly fast. But here I was, three years later, having my perception of melting re-framed by the glacier itself as a beautiful process of transformation. One of simply letting go. Nature gifted me a shift of perception away from my negative state that was hooked into a narrow human perception of reality, to a simple truth of what is and what was. Change and transformation -acceptance instead of resistance -communion instead of grief filled loss. As I did the Nature Process last night, I felt - multiple times - that I was entering foreign territory; the realm of paradigm shift, the precarious feeling of ‘oh my god my world is about to be turned upside down’ that often accompanies many a life changing experience. How wild is it, to recognize those feelings in relation to the most natural thing in the world? Real, embodied connection and non separation from the bigger being of which I am made and that breathes me every day. I’m feeling the very structures of my own separation and how my mind has created its version of reality and my identity to handle the acceptable known state of radical separation. I’m knowing that my days of that level of separation are over and that with Tabitha’s help I am going to be able to reconstruct my sense of self as a natural being – a natural self. Far out – really and truly, I am blown away by what lies ahead! Please consider gifting yourself The Nature Process: a seven week online journey to discover the power and potential of your natural self. The doors are open for only one more week - you can explore it here. Hope to find you with us, xx Clare [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9wM_hNzpFQ[/embed] Clare Dakin is the founder of TreeSisters– a UK based charity evolving at the intersection of feminine emergence and ecology. She lives between New England and England – currently Gloucester MA, where she just survived the most full-on winter on record (9ft of snow – yes, really) and is now basking in a UK spring of more beauty and fullness than she's ever known. Nature never does anything by halves - we would live so differently, if we simply followed suit!

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